


Ouroboros

by SacchiHikaru



Series: Digital Prophecy [2]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon World Series, Elsword (Video Game), Original Work
Genre: Action, Backstory, Conflict, Flashbacks, Memories, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-16 08:35:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29079468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SacchiHikaru/pseuds/SacchiHikaru
Summary: Elsword Sieghart, powerful Rune Slayer and acting leader of Team Omega, has always been a man with a cheery attitude and a cheerier outlook on life, but even the brightest smiles can hide the darkness of a past that still has a place in their dreams.
Series: Digital Prophecy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2133489





	1. Connect

**Author's Note:**

> Ouroboros is a shorter story of the Digital Prophecy series, focusing on Elsword and his backstory, and interspersed with present day events to an operation that could, if successful, change the face of the Digital World for the better.

The other children talk behind me as we walk in the low light, the sun is already setting, it’s getting dark. Miss Heiner places a hand on my back, pushing me to keep walking, it feels good when she does that. I think the other adults are in the back with the rest of the kids. I like being alone with Miss Heiner.

I raise my head to look at her, and I see her smile back to me. The other kids always try to make fun of me for not playing with them, the other adults always trying to encourage me to play with them. But Miss Heiner doesn’t mind. She’s always okay with me napping on her lap, and just playing by myself next to her. She never says anything when I do.

“Hey, spikehead!” I can’t help but try to look back, but Miss Heiner gently puts her arm in front of my face, preventing me from turning around. I look to her again, and she just shakes her head, “Are you going back to mommy?!?!” that same voice calls out again.

I can immediately hear the adults chastising the kids for saying that, I’ve heard jokes about only having mom for a few years now. A lot of the village folk started treating me differently after they heard Dad went off somewhere. I never understood why. I don’t even remember Dad that much. Sis always said I was too young to remember him.

It felt so weird, like everyone wanted me to be sad about Dad not being around anymore, from the kids to the adults. But then Sis went away and nobody… said anything. Nobody but mom. But she never told me to be sad. Mom said I needed to be strong.

But I remember Sis not being there. I remember her bedroom being empty. I remember her not being with us at dinner. I remember her not being around. But nobody else told me to be sad. Everyone told me to be sad for dad but not for Sis. It felt so weird.

“We’re here.”

Miss Heiner’s voice pulls my head back forward, and I see my house again, it was almost dark now. The adults had taken care of us a lot longer today. She gently pushes me to the door and opens it. “You be a good boy now, okay?”

I look back to her, nodding. “We’ll get you back in the morning.” She says right afterwards, “See you tomorrow, Elsword.” She waves a little as she closes the door, and I wave back, hearing the wood creak as it closes.

And now here I am, in this dark house again. The noises the kids make dying down slowly as they move away from my house. I don’t like the silence. I don’t like being alone.

Mom is probably working late again; she’s done that for days now. I haven’t even seen her at breakfast. I guess I’m lucky Miss Heiner is coming here to pick me up early though, otherwise I’d be starving.

I don’t have many toys in this house. And I don’t know why but the few I have, I haven’t been feeling like playing with them. I take a few steps and sit down on the floor, looking to the ground in front of me, there’s a letter there. Mom looked at that letter and then went to her room, and I haven’t seen her since. I can see there’s things written there, and Miss Heiner always said I read very well, but I can’t understand the words in this letter. What’s a… a “platun”? There’s so many words here I don’t know.

But I feel like I can’t touch this letter. I feel like mom might get mad at me when she comes back if I touch it. But for some reason I can’t stop looking at it. Only when I have to pee. Or sleep.

I haven’t been able to go to my room though. The back of the house has had this bad smell for the last few days, and I think it’s getting worse. It’s stronger around the bathroom too, so I have to go pee outside. I don’t want to pee the bed again, Mom gets upset when I do that, and I’m already a grown up! I shouldn’t be peeing the bed. The couch has been comfy to sleep on. And I’m surrounded by most of my toys then. It feels good to wake up and see all of my toys around me, even if I don’t want to play with any of them.

I hear a noise behind me, the creaking of the door opening, did Miss Heiner come to check on me again? Maybe she could stay the night this time, maybe she could clean whatever’s stinking the bathroom, that way I don’t have to wait for mom to come back.

But as I look back, I have to squint a little, the light is directly in my face. I can see someone tall, an adult, and they’re wearing some really weird clothes and “Elsword?”

I blink a few times, and the light this person is holding moves, it stays on the table, and the kneel down to my level. She looks at me, and I can see those familiar eyes, that long red hair that she always tied up, her clothes are different, she’s using some ugly jacket, but it’s her, it’s her.

“Sis?”

* * *

September 11th, 2026  
6:32AM

He opened his eyes as the sun streaked across his room, forcing himself to squint a little, even with the rays not directly reaching his face. He still wasn’t used to having a proper window again, it seemed.

He took a deep breath, allowing himself to close his eyes again, feeling the pleasant warmth of the morning sunshine as it hit his skin. Having an actual bedroom felt like such a luxury, he had forgotten how it was to sleep outside the army’s barracks.

Stretching the laziness out of his body, the redhead pushed himself into a sitting position, and after a small yawn, got out of bed. His room was still too sparse for his liking, it made him uncomfortable. He was definitely going to put some posters up, maybe a proper carpet, although he hadn’t given it much thought past that.

Still, he opened the bathroom door and turned on the shower, taking only a moment to close back the door before he let himself relax under the hot water, raising his head to the water so it could better wipe the sleep from his eyes.

Despite his living situation having changed so dramatically, his routine hadn’t really been affected at all. He would always wake up early, almost always the first of the group to wake up at all, immediately get into his shower, and then spend the next hour in front of a mirror drying and making sure his hair was right, including the more rebellious strands that he would have to wrap together. Then he’d put on some pants, adjust his bandana, put on his necklaces and breathe a sigh of relief when he realized he had just wasted the last hour with his morning preparations.

Still, he was way too comfortable with his style to switch, and in a way, the relatively heavy activity early on did help him always have an active start to the day.

Pushing the door to the hallway open, he quietly made his way to the first floor, seeing the large house that had been built for them. Eve’s handiwork, no doubt, and as always, Eve was on the dining table before he was.

“Good Morning, Elsword.” The white-haired queen spoke, as immaculate and yet as casual as always. The sound of Ophelia preparing breakfast in the kitchen filling the background, as Elsword smiled back to her. “Good Morning, Eve.” He started, “I imagine you have plans for us today?”

“When do I not?” Eve smiled a bit more, still gazing at the redhead. He sat down opposite her on the table, placing both elbows on top of it, “So, what kind of Digimon will we be killing today?” he raised an eyebrow, grinning, “I happen to remember you didn’t give us the schedule for today.”

Eve chuckled a bit, “No Digimon today, or at least, I don’t believe so.” Eve continued, but before he could continue the conversation, Ophelia placed a plate in front of him, two large sandwiches on it, before nodding to the redhead and returning to the kitchen.

Elsword let out a small snort as he looked to Eve quietly smiling, and after a small shrug, simply started eating absentmindedly. It wouldn’t take long for the others to arrive, Aisha, always an early riser yet never one for greetings, simply sits down with her legs crossed, writing something in a book on her lap while she waits for her breakfast. Rena, stretching and loudly declaring her presence with a giant smile as she sits down, followed very shortly by Chung, as much in the mood for greetings as Aisha was, although at least today he’s not cleaning one of his guns.

Raven would arrive next, as shirtless as Elsword was, although due to the claws, he never would get nearly as much shit from it as Elsword did – the redhead was at least glad no one tried to get him to put on a shirt for breakfast anymore, but they still insisted otherwise. Ara, the last one to arrive, always smelling faintly of incense, and always with that giant hair of hers neatly tied and with Silver’s hairpin glinting slightly in the light.

But no sooner did Ara finish her greeting and sit down… “I have news.” Eve started, placing both of her hands together, immediately quieting what little noise there was in this house of theirs, “We have officially finished phase one of the restoration efforts.” A large smile, “We can finally move on to phase two.”

“Good.” Rena let out, sighing, “I was getting tired of Search & Destroy missions.” She smiled even as she said that, and Elsword let out a small laugh, “You mean you _don’t_ enjoy walking hours on end just to kill something within a few seconds?”

“You haven’t told us what phase two entails.” Chung cut through their chatter immediately, turning his head to her, to which Eve nodded. “Phase Two is proper restoration of the climate and the environment.” She paused a little for effect, “To do this, we would require some sort of access to the Digital World’s foundational code.”

“I assume you already have a plan in place?” Aisha asked, matter-of-factly, still writing in her book, and again, Eve nodded. “Tonight, we will perform Operation: Connect.” She continued, “I will give you all the proper debriefing later, but you should all be ready for combat.”

“’We’?” Elsword raised his eyebrows, “Are you not coming?” and Eve let out a larger sigh, “As much as I want to, after our preliminary scouting of the situation, I believe I would be more useful running mission control.”

“Who else will be a part of this operation?” Raven asked, leaning in a bit more forward, “Sacchi and BlackGuilmon will both be a part of it, but no members of Alpha.” She tilted her head, “They would just be a liability.”

“That’s… harsh.” Rena frowned, “Is the place we’re going that dangerous?”

Eve shook her head, “Probably. I honestly do not know.” She gazed forward again, “But…” a pause, “Well, you’ll understand better once I give you all the proper debriefing, but that’s later.” A smile, “For now, let’s enjoy breakfast.”


	2. Connections

I sit down on a rock, letting the slow, gentle breeze of the forest run through my body. It is quite hot today, so I guess it’s good that the trees give such good shade. Their perfectly green leaves swaying with the wind and creating a pleasant rhythm to my ears.

One of the leaves falls down in front of me, and I pick it up, staring at it with a smile. The flowers and the bushes around Ruben have always been so pretty, so lush and beautiful. I still remember the sheer awe I had when I first gazed upon the giant Tree of El at the center of it all, it was something out of a storybook. Captain Lowe told me Ruben is this beautiful year-round and coming from a place where even in the spring beauty was scarce, I couldn’t really believe it.

Of course, it’s already been almost a year I’ve come to Ruben and joined the El Guardians around here. I’m so glad they found my village when they crossed the seas. I don’t think I could stay there any longer, not alone.

…Huh?

I pick up my sword from my side, what was that noise?

I get up, that sounded like some sort of laughing, is it one of the other patrols? Maybe they’re coming back from higher up in the tree. I squeeze between two trees and go for the bushes, looking out, but—

But what I see is a large, brown and short haired man with a giant necklace and honestly kind of simple clothes? He’s carrying a huge sword with one hand, but he’s definitely not part of the Guardians, I think I would remember someone this large back in the barracks. He’s surrounded by a bunch of smaller guys, all wearing some sort of black jacket and using helmets obscuring their faces. “This job was so easy!” one of them speaks, “Those patrols never saw it coming.” Another one continues.

“Gahahaha!” The larger man bellows out, “Job’s not done yet fellas.” With his other hand, he starts fiddling with something in a pouch he carries at the side of his belt, “But as soon as we get back with this thing…” he pulls out— “…we’ll never have to work another day in our lives!”

What he carries in his other hand, it is a stone large enough that even someone that is probably twice as large as I am has issues handling it with only one hand. It glows, brightly, and pulses with a green-ish energy as it does. I’ve only seen this thing once, but I know what it is. It’s the El of Earth, the source of the vitality around Ruben. That thing should be at the top of the tree!

“Hey!” I jump out, brandishing my sword, “What do you guys think you’re doing!?” I let out, holding my sword with both hands, the group – about six or seven, counting the big guy – all turn to me at the same time. “That stone is important! Give it back!”

One of the smaller guys immediately pulls out a knife and points it in my direction, “Oh, look what we have here.” The bigger guy says, “A twerp pretending to be the hero.” I glare, but he only grins in response, “Where’s your mommy, kid? It’d be better if you just ran to her right now.”

“I ain’t scared of a thug.” I reply, “Last warning, give the El of Earth back, or you _will_ regret it.”

“ _Thug_?” the smile vanishes from his face for only a moment, before his grin comes back, his eyes narrow. “You _really_ don’t know who you’re dealing with, do you kid?” he spits to the side, “Get ‘im boys.”

Immediately, the two smaller guys start rushing to me, I can see one of them holding a dagger in his right hand, I can’t see a weapon on the other one, but the first one is blocking my vision, I can’t see the second one’s left arm.

I smile a little, and as soon as the first one is within three paces, I move to the right with a big step, avoiding the stab, before swinging my sword downwards, hitting him on the side. The second one comes quickly, and I raise my sword, making an upwards slash in his direction.

It doesn’t hit him, but I hear the metal cling against metal, the glint of his dagger being thrown into the air. Even through the helmet, I can see the look of surprise in his eyes before I swing the sword back down, the slice pushing him back as he falls.

I raise my head with a grin, but immediately, I realize one of the other ones is aiming a crossbow in my direction. I move my body more to the right, trying to move out of the way, I hear a massive “clang!” noise, and the “fwip!” of the bolt going wide, into the forest behind me.

I look back to where he was, and I see him on the ground, an arrow laying next to him as the rest of the group looks to the side. “The ‘ell!?!” one of them shouts, but as they try to raise their weapons again in whatever direction they’re looking at, a thundering crack sounds out, loud enough to make my ears ring. A shattering cry comes afterwards, and one of the smaller ones, holding a short sword, falls to the ground, smoke coming out of his body.

With the entire group distracted, I rush forward, clenching my sword tightly. They only turn to me when I’m far too close for them to do anything. The one closest to me tries to raise his dagger to defend, but my sword finds his chest before he can, his body being thrown in the direction of a nearby tree. Only the big guy and one more left.

But before I can raise my head again, I can feel the smoke entering my lungs. I reflexively cough and bring my left hand to my nose. I look around, to see myself completely inside a white smoke cloud, I can’t see anything.

Still, I can hear a much different metallic sound come from somewhere up ahead. I hold my sword forward and start running in that direction. It doesn’t take too long for me to break out of the smoke cloud, but when I do, I see one of the little guys fallen to the ground, a ball-shaped dent in his helmet, and a woman, clearly older than me, standing next to him.

“Who are you?” I ask, raising my sword again, but she turns to me with a smile, “My name is Rena.” Her long, blonde hair sway a little as she moves, her green eyes making me want to lower my guard, “Thank you for stepping in, I’ve been tracking them looking for an opportunity for a while.”

“Tracking them?” I ask, and the woman nods, before kneeling down next to the thug on the ground. She places a hand on his chest, and frowns for a second, “Yeah, I heard a commotion and saw them right after they ambushed one of the patrols.” She sighs, “They’ve been carrying the El of Earth for a whole hour now.”

“And they’ll be carrying it for a while longer, it seems.” Another voice comes, this time from my right side, I turn to it, to see a small figure walk out from between the trees, “Looks like the big guy got away after that smoke bomb.” Her purple-ish hair with two child-like ponytails on the front makes me frown a little, “Don’t think we’ll find him anywhere around either, I think he used some sort of teleportation.”

“What’s a little girl like you doing here?” I ask, placing the back of my sword on my shoulder. She immediately glares at me, “’Little’?! Why you!” she lets out, “You’re one to talk! How old are you anyway!?”

“Sixteen.” I respond, and she takes a step back, “Wha—You’re lying! There’s no way a twerp like you is older than me!” she holds a stick with both hands, “I swear, I help you out with my lightning bolt and this is how you respond!?”

I blink a few times, “What do you mean?” I ask, and she, still angrily, points back the way I came, using that stick of hers. I look in that direction, and she’s pointing to the smoking body of one of the thugs, “That guy! I shot a Lightning Bolt at that guy!” she continues, raising her voice more.

She… shot _lightning?_ That’s… Wow.

“Let’s not fight right now.” The voice from the woman came back, and as I turn back to her, I see that she’s gotten up. “This one’s no good, but…” she then turns back to the rest of the fallen thugs, and I notice that the one that had been hit with that arrow seems to be squirming a little, “There is still one person we can ask where their boss might be.”

And from that guy, we would learn that the man who had stolen the El of Earth was a mercenary by the name of Banthus, and he was going to take it back to a nearby city, Elder. I learned that the Rena woman was an elf, and she was here on a mission to help protect the El of Earth, and the other girl – Aisha – wanted to study the El of Earth to try to find a way to recover her lost powers. She swore she used to be a ridiculously powerful mage before she got tricked and lost most of her powers.

And well, I am one of the El Guardians, so the three of us decided that recovering the El of Earth was our primary objective, and that we had a better chance of doing that if we stuck together. Captain Lowe gave me leave to go recover the El of Earth while the rest of the Guardians did their best to protect Ruben from the beasts that would surely go unstable without the El, and so started our journey, and the group that would then be known as “The El Search Party”.

But I could never have predicted just how large our adventure would become.

* * *

September 11th, 2026  
3:21PM

He knocked on the door of the room labeled “Ara”, after only a moment, he heard a “Come in!” from inside.

Opening the door, he could see Ara’s room, almost exactly the same as his, although with one key difference – the little shrine off in the corner, with the incense still burning, leaving a pleasing scent around the room. Ara pushed herself to her feet from in front of the shrine, “Oh, Elsword.” She let out, “Sorry, am I late?” she smiled as she approached the bed.

“In a sense.” He tilted his head a little to the side, his large necklace making a noise as he did, “We’re the last ones to leave.” He grinned, “They told me to stay behind and pick you up.”

“Apologies then.” She let out, sitting down on the bed, and leaning down to grab her short boots, “I don’t want to hold up the group.” Despite her words, Ara still smiled, starting to put on the same boots she used for combat for so many years now.

“Nonsense.” Elsword let out a small chuckle under his breath, “The others know you have responsibilities as a priestess. No one will begrudge you taking your duties seriously.” He smiled again, leaning his sword on his shoulder, “Especially since Silver is such a demanding spirit.”

She giggles a little under her breath, “He can be, yes.” and Elsword can see her look away, next to her on the bed, probably looking towards Silver. “But I don’t mind.” She continues, putting on the first boot, “I trained to be a priestess since I was young, so this is only what’s been expected of me.”

Elsword placed the sword on the ground, leaning it against the wall, before leaning his own shoulder against the doorframe. “I thought your brother was supposed to be the priest?” he let his gaze slacken a bit as he asked the question, trying to seem as innocent and non-threatening as possible.

“Well, he was.” Ara did not show signs of being bothered by the question, “Mother and Father trained him to be the head priest, but they also trained me to be his assistant.” She smiled a bit, “Of course, since we trained together, I picked up some of the head priest duties too.” She put on the second boot, and then placed both hands on her lap, looking to Elsword. “Good to have a backup, I suppose.” She smiled, but her gaze lowered just a tiny bit.

“It did end up coming in handy.” Elsword let out, and Ara giggled a bit in response, “I suppose it did.” She then looked again to him, “What about you?” she asked, and Elsword raised an eyebrow, “You mentioned you had an older sister, didn’t you?”

Elsword took a long, deep breath, and Ara immediately responded with “Sorry, too much?” but Elsword smiled again, shaking his head, and looked to the ceiling, “Sis was… well, she was everything to me for a long while.” His smile grew wider, “She taught me how to fight with a sword. I owe a lot of what I know to her.”

“Was she a Rune Slayer like you?” Ara asked, and Elsword closed his eyes, “No, no, she was a much more traditional swordfighter.” He laughed a little, “And so good at it too! I never beat her. Not once.” He then looked back to Ara, shrugging a little, “Might’ve been because she was fifteen years older than me, though.” He continued to smile.

“You sound very fond of her.” Ara asked, and Elsword shifted his gaze, back to his sword, “I am.” He replied, his smile growing just a little wider, “…I am.”

He exhaled a little strongly, his smile fading a little from his face before Ara’s voice filled the room again, “What happened to her?” she asked, and Elsword closed his eyes for a long moment.

Before picking up his sword and looking back to Ara with another smile, “You done getting ready?” he let out, “The others are waiting for us.”

Ara jumped a little in response, “Oh, yes!” she let out, getting up from the bed and grabbing her spear from the wall next to her nightstand. “Let’s go.”


	3. Knowledge

“I see.” The man in front of us spoke softly, despite his strong frown. He fiddled with the badge I had just given him for a moment, inspecting it, “It is indeed a predicament.” Mr. Hoffman continues, extending his arm to hand me back my badge, which I grab silently.

“So… will you help?” Rena let out, from my side. Mr. Hoffman scratched his belly a little, over that gaudy black overcoat with golden inlays he wore. “The aid I can give your group is limited – I’m a merchant, not a fighter.” He sighs.

I can see Aisha glaring at him from the corner of my eye, but either he doesn’t notice, or doesn’t care. “However.” Hoffman continues, and I shift my attention back to him, he is now rubbing his chin, wondering. “If your group is as good at fighting as you say, there might be something I can do to help.”

“Really?” I let out, “You just said you aren’t a fighter, though.”

For the first time since this conversation started, Mr. Hoffman cracks a smile, “Ah, but a merchant like me has other perks aside from fighting!” he chuckles a little, “Especially when you’re the head of the Commerce Association from the largest royal city in the continent!” I have a feeling he’s not talking about Elder.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you kids don’t _know_ where this Banthus character might be, yes?” he tilts his head only slightly, and I nod in response, “He mentioned he was coming here, to Elder, but nothing else.”

“Well, in that case, I can check with some of my contacts to get the information you might need.” His smile grows a little larger, “If he is as large as you say, someone is bound to have seen him.”

“And what do you want in return?” Aisha lets out, her voice clearly annoyed, “You’re a merchant, you’re not in the business of giving out things for free.”

His smile fades a little, but he raises both of his eyebrows, “Astute little girl.” He says, and Aisha groans loudly in response, “Do _not_ call me a little girl.” I can hear the little sparks of electricity coming from her staff. And Mr. Hoffman immediately smiles again, “Ah, apologies.” He simply says, and then turns back to me.

“You see, one of my shipments was attacked not too far from the city.” He starts, “It was in the outskirts of a place we call the Shadow Forest.” He starts to take a few steps towards a nearby wall, pointing to a map on it, the gold of his rings glinting as he does, “It’s a forest that hasn’t seen the light of the sun ever since the El Explosion.”

“Sounds like the kind of place that would be very dangerous.” I let out, “Why would your folk ever go there?” Mr. Hoffman looks back to me, still smiling, “The thing is, this is the first time in the twenty years I’ve been here, that I’ve ever heard of anyone being attacked from outside the forest.” A pause. “Not only that, but the survivors of the attack also said it was an _Ent_ that did it.”

“An _Ent_?” Rena lets out, “They are forest spirits, they aren’t naturally aggressive.” She frowns as she crosses her arms, “And they rarely, if ever, leave their forest of origin.”

“Indeed, we’ve never had issues before.” Hoffman continues, “We were lucky to recover the cargo they were carrying, and fortunately, most of the couriers were able to escape with only minor injuries.”

“Most?” I ask, and Mr. Hoffman nods slightly, “Two of the team of five perished, I’m afraid.” He then turns back to the map, “Regardless…” he continues, with the air of someone who is very clearly not interested in the topic “…it seemed like a random occurrence at the time, but if the El of Earth has been stolen, it could be a precursor of things to come.”

“So, what do you want us to do?” Aisha lets out, placing a hand on her hip, and Mr. Hoffman smiles again, “Simple! While I gather the information your group needs, you should all go to the Shadow Forest and pacify the creatures there.”

“You mean kill.” Aisha is still glaring at the man, but Mr. Hoffman simply lets out a shrug, that smile back on his face as large as it ever was, “If necessary, but I have a feeling your Elf friend might take issue with that.”

“And you would be correct.” Rena responds, still crossing her arms.

“Doing this, you will prevent any future attacks from happening, and potentially even reopen the trading routes we have with the Royal City.” He clasps his hands together, “And if nothing else, it will be a good way to kill time while I gather the information.”

“We’ll do it.” Rena responds, quickly, and I can hear Aisha turning to her from behind me, “Rena!”

But before anyone else can say anything, Mr. Hoffman continues, “Splendid!” he claps once, in what someone might be able to mistake for glee. “Now, I have to get to work, I am a busy man, you see.” He gently points with his arm to the door, “Have a nice day!”

The man practically pushes us out of the room, with only Aisha really giving any level of resistance to his pushing. When the door slams shut behind us, and I can very distinctly hear the “click” of a lock, Aisha lets out loudly, “Rena!” she turns to the woman, “You do know there’s a good chance he already _has_ that information and is just using us, right?” she frowns deeper, “You can never trust a merchant like that!”

“Maybe.” Rena does not turn to Aisha, instead starting to walk down the hall, and I very quickly follow suit, “But we have to figure out what’s up with these Ents anyway.” I can hear Aisha starting to follow us only now, after we’re already some distance away, “And even if we didn’t, we’d still need to stop them from attacking anyone on the road, don’t you agree?”

“Well, I guess…” Aisha sighs, having gotten significantly closer to us “But still, I don’t like getting such a raw deal.”

“Don’t be like that.” I let out, over my shoulder, “Even if he has the info, do you think he’d just give it to us?” I turn a little more to her, seeing her frown in my direction, “You said it yourself, merchants don’t give out things for free.”

Aisha simply sighed, seemingly defeated, and I just smile and look back forward. “So, Rena, we leaving today?” I ask, but Rena, without even looking at me, shakes her head, “Sunset’s close, I think travelling in the evening would be a bad idea.” She starts, “We’ll leave at noon tomorrow, make sure you two get plenty of rest.”

“Well…” Aisha takes a deep breath, “If we’re leaving tomorrow, I suppose it’d be a good idea to stock up on supplies. We’re almost out of the things Lowe gave us.”

“In that case, I’ll go grab some more food for the road.” Rena’s voice finally sounds a little bit lighter, “Elsword, could you go grab us some potions?” she smiles as she looks back over her shoulder to me, and I nod. “And Aisha, could you go to the library and see if you can find any info on the forest?”

“Well, you sure know how to play to my strengths.” Aisha responds, and I can almost hear the smile in her voice, “Leave it to me!”

The three of us leave the building after going down another two stories and separate to do our respective tasks. While Rena goes to some of the smaller markets – I imagine going buy some fresh produce or something – and Aisha splits in another direction, I head for the big central plaza of Elder.

And here, I can see the hustle and the bustle of a city, of people walking around and talking, all around the huge statue of the city’s mayor. So many different clothes and kinds of people, from children to adults, from people quietly sitting down and talking to people that look like they’re in a hurry to get somewhere.

It reminds me of the stories I heard. Of the big city. Although Elder certainly seems a lot less lavish than what she told me, perhaps the kingdom was just much bigger than Elder? I wonder if that Royal City Mr. Hoffman mentioned would be closer to what sis told me. I’m almost excited to find out.

Still, it’s not hard to see the huge sign on the outside of a wooden building labeled “ECHO’S ALCHEMY”. The building itself seems a lot smaller than anything around it, but there is a sign up front labelling it as “open”.

I push the wooden door open, hearing the jingling of bells as I do, “Welcome.” A voice comes from the other side, a small girl sits on the other side of a counter, she has huge goggles on her head, gloves and is currently licking what looks to be a half-finished lollipop. “Welcome to the Alchemy shop, what can I get you?” her voice is a little low and uninterested, almost like she’s tired. She doesn’t even look at me when she speaks, instead still licking that lollipop with one hand and doing something else under the counter with the other.

“Uh, hi, are you Echo?” the girl looks to be younger than me, honestly, although her white hair might mean she’s actually a lot older? I don’t know. “Yes.” She replies, still not looking at me, “This is my shop, what do you need?”

“Uh, I’d like some healing potions, please.” I say, “How many?” she asks, and I look around a bit. Despite looking simple, the shelves in this place are absolutely packed with all sorts of bottles with liquids of all kinds of colors, it is a little overwhelming, really. “How many would 8000ED get me?”

“It can buy you eight small ones or two medium ones.” She responds, “The small ones are good for smaller injuries, stuff that’s annoying but you could walk off if you wanted. The medium ones are for stuff that would get you debilitated for a while, and likely would need proper medical care afterwards.” Again, she says all of this without even looking at me. I lean over the counter, looking at whatever she’s doing under it.

She either doesn’t realize it or doesn’t care. She’s sitting on what looks to be a very simple wooden chair, the kind that doesn’t look very comfortable at all, with a notebook on her lap. She seems to be doodling something on it, but I can’t quite make out what it is. It looks to be… some sort of plant? Maybe a tree?

“Uhm… I’ll take four small ones and one medium one, then.” She finally moves when I finish my sentence, placing her pen and notebook on the counter and getting up. I see her kneel down under the counter to pick up something, and she returns with a box, now holding her lollipop entirely on her mouth.

She lifts it, and goes to one of the shelves, picking up four small bottles and placing them on the box, before picking up a larger bottle and putting it next to them. She places it on the counter again, some distance from me, and with one hand, she seems to grab a little sack, again from under the counter, and the other she picks up the bottles and looks at them.

Silently, she looks at each bottle and then puts what looks to be a small piece of paper around each one, before finally putting them all inside of a sack and closing it. “That will be exactly 8000ED.” She finally says when she pulls the lollipop off her mouth.

“…What’s that paper thing for?” I ask, while I go grab the sack of money I had with me, opening it and grabbing coins from inside. Echo, still not looking at me, responds, “Protection. These vials are just glass, they break easy.” She starts, “It’s a special material that absorbs shock very well, makes sure they don’t break before they get used.”

I place the coins on the counter, and Echo very quickly snatches them up, before pushing the sack in my direction. “When you drink these, make sure to drink the whole vial. Half-doses don’t work.” She starts, “Especially the medium one. Get a lot of people thinking you can treat a medium like a multi-dose small. It’s annoying.”

I put the bag of coins back where it was and grab the sack she gave me. “I assume you can’t just drink many of the small ones to treat them like a medium?” I smile a little, but she takes another lick of her lollipop, “Nope. Alchemy doesn’t work like that.” Her expression never really changes.

“Okay…” I blink a few times, and look around the shop again, “Hey… This is going to sound like a weird question, probably.” I pause for a second, and look at her again, but her expression doesn’t change, “Is… alchemy like magic, by any chance?”

It takes her a moment to respond, “…Kind of, but they’re completely separate disciplines.” I can’t read her at all, the closest thing she makes to an expression or even changing the tone of her voice is licking that lollipop of hers.

“I guess that means you wouldn’t be able to teach me about magic, huh?” I know I’m smiling sadly, but I can’t help it. Ever since I saw Aisha send out that lightning bolt back in Ruben, it kind of… fascinated me. Aisha has since shown that she can do a lot of other cool stuff, like throwing out fireballs, or stopping people in their tracks, or even short-range teleportation! I really wanted to learn how to do that…

“No, you’d have to find a proper mage for that.” Echo responds, and I let out a sigh. The only mage I know is Aisha, but I somehow doubt she’d teach me anything, I get the feeling she thinks I’m some sort of brute, and… I mean, yeah, I don’t exactly have a lot of formal education, but still.

“But if you want, I can give you a book on the basics.”

I turn back to Echo, my eyes going wide, “W-What?” I let out, “How much would it cost?”

“Nothing, really.” Echo responds, “I got a lot of old books lying around that I’ve been meaning to get rid of.” Another lick on her lollipop, “You want it?”

“Y-Yes!” I reply, my voice probably being higher than I wanted it to. Echo leaves the counter and goes through a small door in the back of the shop, and after only a minute or so, comes back with a big, thick, black book titled “Magic for Beginners.”

I would leave that shop with the biggest grin on my face, thanking Echo profusely. That evening I would start reading it as much as I could, until sleep took me, and every day afterwards, I tried to read it before I went to sleep. I couldn’t make much sense of it at first, but as I continued studying, things started to click.

All throughout our adventure to the Shadow Forest, I read whenever I got the chance – although always out of Aisha’s sight, I knew she’d mock me for it – and the fact that it took much longer than we expected only served as a benefit to me. Once we were back and had managed to pacify the Ents “peacefully” there, and finally started to move to Banthus’ cave, I started trying to actually apply the theory.

I still remember how happy I was when I made my first flame. And how amazed Aisha was when I first used it in combat.

* * *

September 11th, 2026  
3:42PM

He pushed open the metal door, “Sorry, we’re late.” He let out to the crowded room, seeing all the heads turn in his direction as he entered, Ara following closely behind him. “I apologize for keeping you all.” Ara continued.

“No need.” Eve, sitting down on her chair, smiled back to Ara. Since the throne room was still in use for Alpha, the debriefing would be taking place in the secondary command room, which unfortunately was much more crowded, especially with the giant table in the center.

But as Elsword looked around and heard Ara close the door behind him, he saw everyone in their typical battle gear, Aisha in the clothes that Angkor had given her, Raven with his sword at his side, Chung already in full armor, and Rena with that half-skirt and her boots. Only Eve was still wearing more casual attire.

But as he looked, his eyes met those of the black haired and midnight blue dressed man. Sacchi nodded to Elsword, and BlackGuilmon at his side, did the same. Elsword smiled back, giving them a quick thumbs up, before turning back to Eve. “Alright, is this everyone?”

Eve nodded, “Indeed, we can start the debriefing.” Eve clapped her hands together, the table in the center lighting up with a grid, “As I mentioned previously, Phase One of the clean up duties has finally been completely, there are no more Berserk Digimon in the entirety of the Digital World.” She started, “The only ones left are the Four Lords, the members of Alpha, and BlackGuilmon here.”

He could very clearly see BlackGuilmon’s frown in response, “Digimon aren’t supposed to die for real though.” He paused, and Eve nodded back, “Indeed, unless they’re Black Digimon, they reincarnate as Digi-eggs shortly after their deaths.” She then looks back to the table, “But I have reason to believe that the data of all of the dead digimon is being stored somewhere.”

“And that somewhere would be The Prophecy.” BlackGuilmon interjected, and again, Eve nodded, “Indeed, and we can deal with them later. For now, we have a more pressing issue.”

“You mean, if we just bring the Digimon back with the Digital World as-is, they’ll just go Berserk again, right?” Aisha asks, raising her head slightly, “Only the destined are immune to the virus, you said.” Elsword continued her train of thought, “Something about their connection to the Digivices?”

“Indeed.” Eve replied, “Now, my work on actually finding a cure hasn’t reached a critical point yet, but even when the cure is finished, we’ll need a way to distribute it.”

“I assume you’re not having us inject the ground with a vaccine or something.” Elsword cracked a smile, and Eve giggled a little, and he could hear the small laughs coming from Rena and Ara, while Raven let out a small “heh” in response. Whether the others had any reaction, they didn’t show. “Nothing of the sort.”

Eve raised her hands, and from the table in the center, a digital depiction of a mountain appeared, “This is Infinity Mountain.” Eve started, but before she could continue, BlackGuilmon, who was now leaning over the table due to his smaller size and hunched posture, spoke, “Resting place of Azulongmon, holy place among the Digimon.” His voice carried a tone that showed respect for the place, but it also carried a small hint of annoyance.

“And the entrance to the Undernet.” Eve finished, earning an annoyed growl from BlackGuilmon. “Sacchi and BlackGuilmon have already done preliminary scouting operations and found the entrance to the very foundational code of the Digital World.” The image on the table zooms in a little, and a red circle appears in a spot somewhere close to the top, a cave, perhaps. “The mission will start properly when Team Omega enters the Undernet.”

“What will we be doing inside?” Rena asked, leaning a bit closer to the image, “And how long is the climb?” Raven continues. A small mark appears next to the mountain, showing its height, only about a thousand feet. “Minutes with flight, a few hours hiking.” BlackGuilmon replies, immediately afterwards.

“As for what you’ll be doing inside, according to BlackGuilmon, the Undernet is the only way to enter the Garden.” Eve continues, and BlackGuilmon raises his head a little, “It’s what The Prophecy told me, so the information’s good.”

“Unfortunately, the group will have to find the entrance to the Garden blind, as we were unable to perform a proper scouting of the inside of the Undernet.” Eve continues, and this time, Sacchi is the one who walks forward. “We weren’t there for very long, admittedly.” He starts, “But we could both feel eyes on us, we were definitely being watched, so expect resistance.”

“And once we find the Garden?” Chung speaks, and Eve claps her hands again, the mountain disappears from the table, and in its place, a large tree appears, “That’s where you’ll find Yggdrasil.” Eve continues, “It is, to simplify, the central computer that governs the whole of the Digital World.”

“I thought that was The Prophecy?” Ara asked, and Eve shook her head in response, “The Prophecy is the creator of the Digital World, but it seems like the actual job of maintaining it is left to Yggdrasil.”

BlackGuilmon then turns to her, “You could think of The Prophecy as the programmer, and Yggdrasil as the machine that runs the code.” He starts, “Unlike The Prophecy, Yggdrasil isn’t sentient, it is quite literally just a machine in the form of a tree.”

“The ultimate objective will be to implant a backdoor into Yggdrasil.” Eve continued, and from behind her, Ophelia approached, a small circular device of metal in her hands, “Once you do that, I’ll have access to Yggdrasil directly, and I’ll be able to run my own code on it.” She smiled, “Which means I’ll be able to run the antivirus, once it is complete. Afterwards, it will be simple to restore the Digital World to normal.”

BlackGuilmon frowned back to Eve once she finished, but the two of them seemed to exchange glances for just a moment, which made the dragon’s expression soft a little. “And I believe the group will be able to return from Yggdrasil without issues.”

“Sounds like a pretty cut-and-dry mission then.” The redhead smiled, “Which makes me think it won’t be that simple.”

“There is one caveat, yes.” Eve replied, “While Sacchi was able to keep his abilities intact inside of the Undernet, BlackGuilmon was unable to digivolve past his rookie form.” He could hear the annoyed grunt from the black dragon, “So this will also double as a protection mission for him while you look for the entrance to the Garden.”

“Why is he coming then?” Aisha raised her voice, looking directly to Eve. It wasn’t hard to see BlackGuilmon’s snarl towards the mage, although she didn’t react to it, “ _Because_ —” BlackGuilmon growled, “—you need me to get inside the Undernet. My clearance may have been wiped from Machine Pit, but I still have enough clearance to enter the Undernet.”

Aisha simply shrugged in response, and Eve clapped her hands again, “And that’s the mission. I will be running mission control from here, any questions?”

“Yeah.” Elsword replied, grinning, “When do we leave?”

Eve grinned back, “Now.”


End file.
